BENGALURU: The Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) concept of `Mohalla Clinics' in Delhi is all set to be replicated in Karnataka with the Siddaramaiah government on Thursday deciding to establish extended health centres in slums and labour colonies across the state.

The move comes in the backdrop of a recent field-study conducted by the Karnataka’s health department officials on mohalla clinics (community clinics) in Delhi.

Health minister K R Ramesh Kumar said: “There are 2,200 primary health centres (PHCs) across Karnataka but these are inadequate to meet the demands of the people, especially in the rural areas. Moreover, we are not in a position to open new PHCs because of financial and logistical constraints. So we have decided to open extended health centres, on the lines of mohalla clinics, to take the health service delivery system to the doorsteps of the people in thickly populated areas.” Each of these centres will have a doctor, a pharmacist and a nurse.

The government will also equip these centres with diagnostic tools for conducting various medical tests on the patients. In fact, the mohalla clinics in Delhi are equipped to conduct over 30 different types of tests and initial diagnosis. Kumar said: “We are planning to source the point of care testing instruments for these centres through Infosys Foundation and Biocon.”

Though AAP units have advocated the Mohalla clinic model for their respective cities (including Mumbai), this is the first time that a state government has announced that it would be replicating it. Kumar justified the move: “We have personally seen how the system works. It is an interesting idea and there is no harm in following something good. I can’t confine to politics here, it is the question of peoples’ health.”

However, the biggest challenge that the minister feared was lobbying from the elected representatives for housing the proposed extended health centres in their respective constituencies. A health department official explained: “Since the countdown for the 2018 assembly polls have begun in Karnataka, netas would want these health centres to be set up in their favourite vote pockets.”

However, Kumar maintained: “We will not go by political considerations in allotting these extended health centres to different localities. It will purely be on the need-based system.”

With immense pride “India Live” celebrated its 10th national conference in Mumbai from 28th February to 3rd March 2019. The conference turned out to be a gold mine of information, with emphasis on academics, education and exchange of knowledge with leaders in interventional cardiology from both India and abroad.